Programme Launched To Assist Kildare Home Owners At Risk Of Energy Poverty

The programme will help create quality jobs, transition to low carbon and support higher education.

A programme has been launched for Kildare and 17 other counties which will invests in activities that build research, development and innovation capacity, assist homeowners in or at risk of energy poverty and contribute to the revitalisation of the regions’ towns centres through sustainable urban development.

Over €663 million is to be invested in the Southern Region and the Eastern and Midland Region which includes Kildare over the next seven years to help create quality jobs, transition to low carbon and support higher education, enterprises, public bodies and local authorities in delivering balanced regional development.

The Programme will target its funding supports through three priority areas. Priority 1 is the creation of Smarter and more Competitive Regions by enhancing research and innovation capacity and supporting regional enterprise. It has a total budget of €337 million.

Schemes under Priority 1 will be the first to launch, and aim to build research, development and innovation capacity in the public research institutions of the Programme Area, by:

·       Establishing two regional smart hubs to accelerate research, training, innovation, commercialisation, collaboration and synchronisation with industry;

·       Developing technology transfer specialists to help with commercialisation opportunities;

·       Developing and delivering immersive needs-led innovation training programmes;

·       Providing appropriate infrastructure and key staff resources to deliver innovative solutions, support programmes and an impetus for entrepreneurship, start-ups and scaling companies and

·       Enhancing capacity of the new Technology Universities in the Programme Area to drive and support regional research, capacity building & innovation.

Supports will be delivered through six streamlined schemes in the Programme Area. Six of the country’s universities and two Institutes of Technology are in the targeted Programme Area, and it is also home to four newly-established Technological Universities.

Investing in collaborative research and innovation activities will build capacity within and between the institutions and collectively support the regional innovation ecosystem and knowledge economy.

Priority 2 is the creation of Low Carbon, Energy Efficient Regions and has a budget of €199 million. This will be achieved by supporting investments to improve energy efficiency of residential homes, targeting homeowners in or at risk of energy poverty.

Responding to the energy challenges, the Programme will fund deep retrofitting to ease the burden of homeowners in or at risk of experiencing energy poverty, reducing the amount they are spending on energy consumption and reducing their carbon emissions. These deep retrofits will be delivered by the Sustainable Energy Authority of Ireland, SEAI.

Priority 3 is Sustainable & Integrated Urban Development. It involves taking an integrated strategic approach to the regeneration of our towns using a Town Centres First Framework.

The Southern, Eastern & Midland Regional Programme 2021-27 launched on Tuesday, 2023 is co-financed through the European Regional Development Fund, (ERDF), by the European Union and the Government of Ireland and managed by the Southern Regional Assembly. ERDF aims to strengthen economic, social and territorial cohesion in the EU by correcting the imbalances between its regions.

The Progamme Area has a population of 3.8 million and covers just over half of the country.